Esther, Naomi, and Reuben Cantor

After their marriage in 1907, Max Cantor and Bessie Bredosky lived in Atlanta and then Birmingham where they had three children: Esther Lena (1909), Naomi (1913), and Reuben (1915). Shortly after Reuben’s birth, Bessie was confined to the State Insane Asylum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1916, after briefly placing his daughters in Birmingham’s Mercy House, an orphanage established by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1891, Max relocated his daughters to the Home in New Orleans. Five years later, Reuben joined his sisters.

During her time in the Home, Esther contributed a monthly report to the Golden City Messenger, in which she chronicled the children’s activities. In April 1924, for example, she wrote about the children’s trip to Delgado Museum and Dr. Mukerji’s lecture on “India, Past and Present.” Two months later, after she and ten other Home children celebrated their confirmation on the festival of Shavuot, she described the service as “most beautiful and impressive,” while thanking the volunteer Matrons for hosting a dance and giving each confirmand a present. She also penned a poem about the religious milestone, which she pledged would “fore’er live within me”: “Each child made a vow | While he was saying his part. | Each child had the thought to do good, | Which came from the depth of his heart.”

In 1932, five years after her discharge from the Home, Esther graduated from Touro Infirmary Nursing School. She later married Samuel Solomon, and moved to Atlanta. Esther died in 1993, survived by her sister and brother.  

Naomi remained in the Home until 1931, where her father visited from Birmingham at least once a year. When he gave her the option of leaving the Home to return with him to Birmingham, 12-year-old Naomi chose to stay in the Home with her brother Reuben, a decision she later viewed as demonstrating that she “considered the Home a good experience.” Like her older sister, Naomi also contributed short articles to the Golden City Messenger, including her 1924 report about the Home children’s celebration of Mardi Gras at the “special residence” of Mrs. L.F. Goldsmith on St. Charles Avenue, from which they watched the parades and each received a box of candy.

Naomi graduated from Isidore Newman School in 1930, and stayed in the Home for another year to take a year-long business course. In 1931, she was discharged into the care of relatives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she met and married Erwin L. Greenbaum. Bonita Hiller Godchaux, whom Naomi described as “the society lady” who volunteered as her “Big Sister,” sent Naomi a trousseau consisting of linens, towels, table cloths, and more. During the years Naomi and Erwin lived in Chicago, they visited with Godchaux whenever she came to town.

Over the years, Naomi also stayed in touch with Home peers, such as Esther Berman, Celia Rodman, Ida Rose Beerman, and Bessie Margolin, as well former Home staff Anna Kamin (nurse) and Edith Lashman (field director). 

Naomi died in 1996, survived by her daughter, grandson, and brother Reuben. Naomi Cantor Greenbaum was buried near her husband in Atlanta’s Greenwood Cemetery. From Find A Grave.

Reuben lived in the Home until 1933, after he graduated from Sophie B. Wright High School. In the 1940s, he was living in Miami where he worked in the circulation department of Miami Daily News. He later moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he died in 1996, ten months after his older sister Naomi.